V9 #1 November 1987 - Archives - The Evergreen State College

Parkway Roadwork
"It'll be barn-like," agrees Collier,
"we're not looking for elegant surroundings."
But he becomes almost
poetic about the lighting. A row of
skylights will cast natural light on the
walls. The angle of the incoming light
and translucent wall panels will reduce
any harsh glare, and will "wash" the
room with light. When the sun goes
down, full-spectrum fluorescent tubes
will continue the effect.
Collier is as concerned with lungs as
he is with vision. "Great pains are being
taken to provide sufficient air
changes per minute so that students
and faculty won't be breathing turpentine
and paint fumes."
As with the gym, plans are underway
to integrate the studios with the rest
of the campus. "We'll still be using concrete,"
says Senior Facilities Engineer
Darrell Six, "but the building will
reflect a different set of needs. Artists
look at things differently and that's a
healthy difference."
"It'll look a little different," agrees
Aurand, "but aesthetically the art
studios are going to be a statement of
vitality. As one of the first buildings to
greet people on campus, it will be a
visual representation of the flourishing
of the arts at Evergreen."
12:10 PM (Lunch hour)
"The best thing about these forums,"
thinks Jim, "is watching everybody
watch everybody else." He's sitting in
the bleachers, watching the gym fill up
for the President's Forum. Rows of
folding seats are set up on the floor.
The forum used to be held in the Board
Room, but increased attendance has
not only caused it to be held in a bigger
space, but to be held more often.
The gym buzzes like a giant beehive
as students, staff and faculty exchange
greetings and find, their seats. "Looks
like the whole campus is here," says
Jim to his neighbor. Seated on the platform
are several student coordinators,
S&A board members, the president and
the chairman of the board of trustees.
There's a wild whoop and then laughter
as a guerrilla theater troupe (dressed
in gorilla suits) dances across the
stage. As far as Jim can tell, their skit
has something to do with the Free Box
(some things never change). Whatever
its message, the president smiles and
shakes hands with one of the gorillas
on his way to the microphone. "Hello,"
he says to the Evergreen community,
"thanks for coming!"
It may be idealistic to suggest that a
bigger space for all-campus meetings
will encourage more participation, but
at least the new gym will offer that
potential. "Right now," says Lambertz,
"we have no space where the whole
campus can gather under one roof and
see who we are."
Ed Trujillo, manager of the Communications
Building, says, "We'll be able
to use CRC Phase II more experimentally
than the Comm. Building. There's
potential for modern dance troupes,
ballets and more big-name music."
CRC Phase II will also serve as an
academic facility, providing a space for
students and faculty in programs to
participate in team-building play.
Lambertz speculates that Core Pro-
grams will incorporate Wellness Lab
assessments into their curriculum,
while student interns will be able to
earn credit in a variety of activities.
There will also be more room for noncredit
instruction. Currently, says
Lambertz, there are waiting lists for
many of the Leisure Education classes,
with no place for the overflow.
4:20 PM
Maria makes her weekly visit to the
Mary Ellen Hillaire Student Advising
Center (SAC) to pore over graduate
school catalogs in the center's library.
A SAC staffer helps her track dmvn the
requirements for a school in Ontario.
Looking around, Maria, reflects that
the center has seen her through four
years of decisions. Folks in Cooperative
Education, Academic Advising,
Career Development, KEY-Special Services,
and the First Peoples' Coalition
have all played important roles in her
education.
The Center doesn't look as brand-new
as it did when it opened in the fall of
1987 and a nervous Maria was one of
its first visitors. It's still as efficient
and helpful as it was then, maybe
more so, but it's more like home now.
Located in the C Wing of the Library,
the Student Advising Center opened
this fall with a clear purpose: to provide
students with integrated, comprehensive
advising. All the services listed
above are now housed in one center.
"Students don't have to run all over
campus now for advising needs. They'll
find it all under one roof," says SAC
Director Joyce Weston '76. "We're able
to communicate more easily and that's
an advantage for keeping up-to-date on
curriculum changes, internship requirements
and a lot more." Standing in the
middle of the Center, one is aware of a
free and easy flow between its component
services, a design that mirrors the
staffs commitment. "Yep," says
Weston, "we're becoming a team."
5:55 PM
"Good to be home," thinks Jim as he
walks in the door, "especially when
someone else is cooking." Two of his
five roommates are making enough
lasagne and garlic bread to feed
everyone in the apartment and the
folks from doimstairs, too. After
greeting everybody and sampling the
bread, Jim walks down the hall to his
room for a few minutes of quiet before
joining the crowd.
He flops on his bed and looks at the
ceiling. "What a day. Words, words
and more words!" The quiet is refreshing.
The noise from the crowd in the
kitchen is just a hum. It's not like
some dorms in other colleges he's
visited, where everything sounds like
it's happening right in your ear and
the only way you can study is to go to
the library or stuff cotton in your ears.
Looking out the window, he sees the
squirrel he's been watching for months
spiral up the trunk of a tree. It freezes
as a skateboarder glides by on her way
to the Housing Community Center.
People are already gathering for the
Rites of Spring Barbecue and DJ
dance. It's going to be quite a, weekend.
Comfort and community. These two
words go a long way in describing the
goals of the planners of Evergreen's
newest housing. The college's first new
housing since 1971 represents elements
of a dream that Facilities Director Ken
Jacob has had since 1973.
Jacob, a former director of Housing
and Auxiliary Services, relates that
several years ago an administrator requested
him to write a proposal for
new housing. "I only had two weeks to
write it, but I knew exactly what kind
of housing students wanted.
"The best college housing I had ever
seen was a complex called Steven's
Court at the University of Washington.
It had huge living and dining areas
conducive to community meals and
celebrations, nice kitchens and single
bedrooms. The buildings were light and
airy, three-story apartment houses
with lots of storage space."
The only problem, says Jacob, was
cost. "I knew there was no way we
could afford it, but I wrote it into the
proposal anyway." He pauses and
shakes his head. "I get chills now when
I think about it. What wasn't possible,
is out there in a beautiful setting, full
of students.
New Housing
Located directly between the highrise
residence halls and modular housing
on Driftwood Road, the new complex
adds 200 much-needed beds to oncampus
housing. Most units are four to
six single-bedroom apartments that
share a kitchen, living room and bathrooms.
Each residence hall, built largely
of wood, is three stories high and
receives generous natural light from
southern exposures.
Project Manager Jim Copland is
visibly proud as he conducts a tour of
the seven residence halls and the Community
Center. He points out the bicycle
sheds and wide, smooth sidewalks
("skateboard heaven," he says); roomy
and efficient kitchens; warm lighting
and the rich gray, cream and mauve interiors,
and hardwood chairs that have
been beautifully refinished by Housing
Maintenance Manager Rick Horn,
Scott Putzier and their crew.
"These buildings," he concludes at
the end of the tour, "are a manifestation
of Evergreen's philosophy. They're
not institutional monoliths. They're
built on a human scale."
One human who really appreciates
that scale is Housing Student Manager
Jamie Gaston, a junior enrolled in
"The Great War" program. As the first
resident in F Dorm, she's had a chance
to watch students settle into their new
homes. "There's something special
Housing Community Center
about this place," she says, "something
apart from bigger living spaces and
brand-newness. I sense that with only
about 28 residents per building, people
will really get to know their neighbors."
Privacy is also important. Gaston
says that every window she's seen
looks onto woods or the playfields.
"Everybody has a view, but nobody's
looking directly into somebody else's
space. That's pretty amazing."
Speaking of "pretty amazing," it's inspiring
to take a look at the gritty
Greener determination that made new
housing possible. Faced with increasing
enrollment, 100% occupancy rates and
a growing waiting list for on-campus
housing, Evergreen submitted a request
to the Department of Education
for a low-interest loan. It was turned
down last fall.
"New housing seemed financially impossible,"
says Jacob, "but [Associate
Vice President for Administrative Services]
Ken Winkley would not give up."
He and other staffers kept working,
consulting and exploring options. Finally,
a "design-build" project, financed by
a $4.1 million sale of local revenue
bonds, was approved by the trustees in
March. Rossiter Glen, a Vancouver construction
firm, was awarded the bid,
ground was broken for the fast-track
project on March 13 and six months
and two weeks later 200 students were
able to wake up in a beautiful, lively
environment only minutes from their
classea
"I'll never forget the day students
moved in," says Copland. "Parents said
'I wish / was moving in here' and a student
said 'my room is so coo-ool!' That
was the payoff for me."
Jacob hopes that the campus keeps
sight of those eventual payoffs during
the coming months. "Everyone's excited
about our new capital budget, but
in the meantime there'll be inconvenience,
noise and mud. But I think
Evergreen will rise to the challenge."
Offsetting the stress of keeping
massive projects on schedule and
within budget, is the energy Jacob
detects in the community. "You can see
dreams in a lot of eyes—the whole campus
is being revitalized."
Evergreen A-Building: Majosr projects
Project
New Housing |
Housing Community Center \
Lab Annex Addition (art studios)
CRC Phase II
Targeted
Completion Date
September, 1987
October, 1987
September, 1988
June, 1989
Cost
$4.1 million
(part of above)
$1 million
$6.8 million
Projects in process include repaying Red Square, building constructions to
house grounds equipment and hazardous wastes, an automatic door to provide
physically-challenged access for each of the academic buildings, and repair of
tables, chairs, desks and file cabinets.